The War Ends With Us
by Korean Boron-Paper Stars
Summary: After a failed mission to destroy an OZ base in Japan, the Gundam pilots find themselves with a new mission that they must complete ... if they can cooperate with one another long enough. Trust your partner ... it has never been so difficult before.


The War Ends With Us

A/N: It's been almost a decade since I've last been interested in Gundam Wing … but for one reason or another, the inspiration is coming back again. I'm watching the Gundam Wing series again and reacquainting myself with the characters and the storyline.

The idea for this story came to me in the ending of Endless Waltz, the special edition with the extended character endings. Heero is walking down a street, and as the camera pans upwards to give a bird's eye view of the street, the first thing that came to mind was, "That looks like the scramble crossing in The World Ends With You!"

I've thought about it. The five main Gundam pilots in Gundam Wing are all fifteen. The same age as three of the five main characters in TWEWY. Heero and the main character of TWEWY are rather similar, at least initially. I thought it would be a pretty interesting story to throw TWEWY and GW together in a story.

Also, I really have no idea at what point this story is supposed to take place in regards to GW. Anytime viable, I guess, before the last episode.

I believe I've ranted long enough. Enjoy the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or The World Ends With You. I do not own anything that sounds familiar in the slightest bit.

~TWEWU~

Chapter 1: Street Smarts

He was standing in the midst of a battlefield – enemy soldiers shooting at him, their only objective to strike down anyone who opposed them; the sounds of explosions and people screaming; the blows to his Gundam jostling him around in the cockpit.

The mission, which should have been routine, had ended as a disaster. He and the other four pilots, after a chance meeting in Japan, had decided on cooperation to take down the nearest OZ base. What they hadn't counted on was the preparedness of their foe, the sheer size of the army that was stationed in Tokyo. As powerful as the Gundams were in comparison to the average mobile suit, the Gundams did have their limits. And the pilots were outnumbered.

Just when the situation couldn't have been more terrible, things had taken a drastic turn for the worse. Heavyarms, which had run out of ammunition early in the fight, had to resort to using the elbow blade in its right arm to deal damage. The tactic had been working, until one OZ soldier managed to land a lucky shot. Heavyarms' knife plunged into the soldier's mobile suit. At the exact same time, the OZ soldier had fired a final round from his gun, hitting Heavyarms' cockpit at point blank.

As the white and orange Gundam toppled to the ground in a fiery, smoldering mess, Sandrock froze and ceased its movements. Its pilot cried out, his hands clenched over his heart, unable to feel the life presence of his friend and comrade. Taking advantage of the pilot's distraction, an OZ mobile suit charged its gun and fired at the immobile Gundam. Even at a distance, the force of the attack was too great for the stunned pilot to withstand. The OZ soldier that felled Sandrock turned to the remaining three Gundams, only to be cleaved in half by a green bladed scythe.

The pilot of Deathscythe let out a cry of anger and pain at seeing two of his friends die in front of his eyes. Ignoring the warnings from the pilots of Wing and Altron, Deathscythe charged at a line of mobile suits, slashing at as many of them as it could. In the end, though, there were simply too many of them, and Deathscythe soon fell to the same fate as Heavyarms and Sandrock.

Wing and Altron were the only two Gundams standing, and there were still many OZ mobile suits left unharmed. Acknowledging the possibility that they might not survive the impending fight, the two pilots immediately launched into action. Altron took down a great number of mobile suits before it, too, was struck down by a chance shot from an OZ soldier.

And now, he was the only one alive. There was no way he could defeat them all on his own, but he would not fail his mission.

The young pilot of Wing Gundam opted for the one option that remained. He stepped out of his Gundam and stood outside his cockpit on the hatch. The self-detonation device in his hand, he said his final words.

"Mission complete."

He pressed the button. The explosion from the his Gundam's detonation threw him from his perch and to the hard, unforgiving pavement. And then, his world was swallowed by darkness.

~TWEWU~

His sense of sound was the first to return. The sound of footsteps against asphalt, the lighthearted chatter of civilians, the chime of a pedestrian crossing sign – they seemed to magnify into one great noise that did nothing to alleviate his headache.

Heero Yuy opened his eyes and was surprised to find himself lying face down in the middle of a crowded intersection. His body, which should have ached from the battle and the self-destruction of his Gundam, was free of pain or blood. Heero rose to his feet, surveying his surroundings with a careful eye. He recognized the area he was in – a small district in Tokyo called Shibuya. He had passed through the place a few days earlier.

More important than the question of how he had ended up in a Shibuya intersection, though, was his state of being. Even if he had somehow managed to survive self-detonating his Gundam a second time, it was unlikely that the OZ soldiers would have been so careless to allow him to live. It was true that Heero didn't know what came after death … but was he truly dead?

A pedestrian brushed by him just then, and Heero was surprised to see that the man had literally walked past him. Their shoulders had bumped together briefly; but instead of feeling the man's limbs, the man's entire arm had simply gone right through Heero's body. The pilot of Wing Gundam stared at the passerby's back in silent astonishment, then he looked down at his own hands. What was going on?

Before he could ponder his situation any further, a loud beep from somewhere close by caught his attention. Instinctively reaching for his gun, Heero felt his hand brush against something as he went for his weapon – something that should not have been there. Carefully moving the object into view, he saw that it was a cell phone. For a moment, he wondered why it was on his person.

The cell phone beeped cheerfully at him, and the young pilot immediately recognized it as the sound he had heard before. He cautiously flipped it open, not knowing what to expect, and was greeted by the strangest message he had ever seen in his life.

_Mission 1: Reach 104. Failure will result in erasure. You have 60 minutes._

Although the word "mission" was within its contents, it was the strangest and the most illogical mission he had ever received. What was 104 supposed to refer to, and what was erasure? It didn't seem like anything that Doctor J would ever send him.

Dismissing the message as unimportant, Heero was about to put the phone away when a sharp jolt of pain surged through his right palm. He gritted his teeth, his carefully expressionless mask slipping from the unexpected sting. Heero turned his hand over, and was immediately struck dumbfounded.

Burned into his palm was a timer emblazoned in red graffiti-like font, ticking down numbers with each passing second.

It read 59:42.

He didn't have a chance to wonder for long. From somewhere behind him, the sound of static echoed throughout the intersection. Heero whirled around, and was alarmed – although he kept the emotion from showing – to see red graffiti symbols resembling the faces of monsters floating towards him. A green frog leapt out from the smallest symbol and attacked Heero with a stream of bubbles.

Heero let out a soft hiss as the bubbles made contact with his skin, bursting as they did so and sending shockwaves of pain throughout his body. Even if nothing else seemed to make sense, one thing was for certain: the frogs were the enemy. Heero took out his gun and fired a bullet at the frog closest to him, but the projectile simply went right through the creature … like how the pedestrian's arm had gone through his shoulder.

And speaking of pedestrians … why was it that no one else in the intersection seemed to notice the frogs? And why was he the only one who was being targeted?

Unfazed by the pilot's attempted attack, the frog simply launched another stream of bubbles at Heero. A second frog hopped onto his shoulder and delivered a surprisingly powerful kick as it leapt off him. Assaulted on all sides and with no way to defend himself, Heero figured that it was time to run.

Pivoting on his heel, Heero fled the scramble crossing and ran to the left. Hopefully he would be able to outrun the vicious frogs, if he couldn't fight them.

~TWEWU~

He had never expected to be involved with the UG again for the rest of his life. But it was now apparent that his fate was linked with the state of the UG … to a certain degree, at least.

Neku Sakuraba, veteran Player and three-time victor of the Reapers' Game, channeled his energy into the Pyrokinesis pin in his hands to release a trail of flames that blazed through anything in its way. A mere handful of Dixiefrog Noise was almost nothing compared to the enemies that he had fought in the previous Games. All he needed was a partner to fight off the Noise.

Although he had been hoping to join forces with either Shiki or Beat – the two people who had made him reevaluate his closed-off view of the world – he did not have the luxury of waiting for them to make their way to Hachiko before forming a pact. Also, the Chinese boy whom he had partnered with had seemed rather lost and confused about the events that had been unfolding.

It was a feeling that Neku knew all too well. He remembered how he had been dropped in the middle of Shibuya's scramble crossing, with no memories and no idea as to why he was a part of the Reapers' Game.

His lack of knowledge had almost cost him his existence.

With one last release of power from his Ice Blow pin, the final Dixiefrog was erased from existence. Warped out of the battle zone and returned to the streets of Shibuya, Neku approached his confused partner in order to enlighten him on everything that had just transpired.

~TWEWU~

Heero hurried through the crowded intersection, hoping to lose the creatures that were in pursuit of him, but to no avail. It was almost as if the crowd in the scramble crossing wasn't even present – and maybe they didn't. It was inconceivable that he should be able to run through an extremely crowded area without bumping into someone; and yet, he seemed to go right through them.

It was several minutes later that Heero felt the need to stop for breath. He examined his surroundings to find that he was no longer in the scramble crossing, but in front of a small shopping center. A large statue of a dog was situated outside the center, making it the most distinguishing feature of the area.

"It should be safe here," Heero thought out loud, but he was quickly proven wrong when three of the frogs that had been chasing him came hopping from the scramble crossing. His right hand clenched into a fist. "What does it take to defeat these creatures?" he growled.

At that very moment, out of the corner of his eye, Heero caught the slightest sign of movement: a fast moving white and blond blur that had made its entrance from the opposite end of the vicinity.

"An ambush?" Not wanting to divert his attention from the frogs, which were rapidly closing the distance between them and their target, but not wanting to have his back to a potential enemy, Heero threw a glance over his shoulder. The figure he had glimpsed was a teenage boy who appeared to be of the same age as him; dressed in a white tank top and baggy beige shorts; his blond hair barely noticeable under his black beanie, which had a white skull featured prominently on the front of the hat. He was making a beeline for Heero. Deeming the boy to be a bigger threat than the frogs, the pilot of Wing Gundam drew his pistol and pointed it at the newcomer. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"Bwaaah!" The blond panicked, clearly not expecting Heero to pull a gun on him. "Put that thing away, yo! We got bigger problems to deal with, aight?" He motioned to the frogs behind Heero. "We gonna need to pact to defeat the Noise!"

"Explain, now," Heero ordered. "Talk."

"Yo, whatchu sayin'? Ain't no time for expirations, aight?" the other teen shouted, growing more frantic by the second. "You wanna be erased, yo? Jus' pact wit' me if you wanna live!"

There was that word again – erased. It was apparent to Heero that this boy – whoever he was and whomever he worked for – knew what was going on. Although he felt no trust for him, Heero decided that for the time being it wouldn't hurt to form a temporarily alliance with the blond.

"Hn. I will accept your terms," Heero said, his voice unwavering and monotone.

As soon as the words had left his mouth, the two teens were bathed in a bright, blue light. It seemed almost warm and comforting, and Heero felt an unfamiliar rush of energy pulse through his body. And then, almost as soon as the light had appeared, it was gone.

Heero was stunned by the display of lights that had just occurred, but made sure not to show a hint of weakness to his mysterious partner. He wasn't even sure whether the boy was friend or foe. "That light … what happened?"

"Aight!" the blond teenager shouted, his intense voice making Heero twitch. "Y'all goin' down! Me an' Tanks gonna make you regret messin' wit' us!"

What Heero was regretting at the moment was not shooting the other teen when he had the chance.

Both Heero and his partner were then enveloped by a second flash of light – Heero was surrounded with an emerald green luminescence; the blond teen was glowing pale green. When the light dissipated, Heero found that he was standing in the middle of an empty street, which appeared to be a warped, distorted version of the area he and his partner had been in. The other boy was nowhere to be seen, but he was surrounded by the three frogs that had been after him in the intersection.

The frogs began to hop around the area, almost aimlessly, and Heero briefly pondered why they were not attacking him again. His confusion didn't last long, though, for one of the frogs finally made its way over to him, ready to land a tackle on the pilot. Heero's battle sharpened reflexes kicked in, and he went for his weapon. He pulled the trigger of his gun, smirking in satisfaction when the launched bullet struck the frog and sent it stumbling back.

"I will eliminate all obstacles in my way." He fired a second round of bullets at the frogs, hitting each and every one of them, no shot going to waste. At the end of his assault, one of the frogs had burst into static and the other two were unable to move due to paralysis. Heero pointed his gun at them, but both frogs dissolved into thin air before he had a chance to shoot.

With the defeat of the three frogs came the end of the battle. The emerald green light returned and obscured his vision, and when it faded Heero saw that he was once again standing in front of the dog statue. The loudmouth was beside him as well. Heero noticed for the first time the skateboard tucked under the teen's arm.

"Heh, that was almost too easy, yo!" he exclaimed, grinning. "Ain't no stupid Noise gonna stand in my way! Yo, Tanks, you almost as good as Phones wit' this fightin' thing!" he said to Heero.

Heero was not impressed. Moving out of the other boy's range, the Wing pilot turned his pistol on the blond. "I do not have time for games. Start explaining."

The teen was so startled that he nearly lost his balance. "Bwaaah! Yo, stop pointin' that thing at me, aight? You almost as bad as Phones use to be!"

"Who do you work for?" Heero questioned, disregarding the outburst. "How did I get here?"

"Yo, you dun know what you doin' here? Is yer mind outta whack? An' whatchu mean who I workin' for? Yo, you makin' me all confuzzled."

The Perfect Soldier barely resisted the urge to massage his temple. He was developing a migraine from the boy's "gangsta" speech and his constant misuse of words.

"Bwaaah! We dun got time for this, yo!" the blond screamed just then, nearly causing Heero to pull the trigger of his gun. "We almost outta time! We gotta get to the 104! Le's bounce, yo!"

"I'm not done questioning you," Heero said, the faintest bit of frustration evident in his voice.

"We only got thirty minutes left, yo! We gotta compute the mission! Move it, yo!"

Heero looked down at his palm to see that the timer now read 29:15. He didn't want to know what would happen when it reached zero. And, as much as he was loath to admit it, the blond boy did have a point: they had a mission to complete. And failure was not an option.

~TWEWU~

Neku and his partner – Chang Wufei, the teen had called himself – returned to the scramble crossing after their battle with the Noise and a brief introduction. The Chinese teen had been reluctant to divulge information about himself, something that Neku could understand. The first week that he had participated in the Game, Neku had staunchly opposed any interaction with the other Players. But his refusal to cooperate had nearly led to his downfall. In the Reapers' Game, the key to victory was to trust one's partner.

It was obvious to Neku that his partner Wufei didn't trust him yet. The same could be said for him, though. There was something about Wufei that made him dangerous, and Neku was wary of depending on the guy to watch his back. But if there was one thing that he had learned during his time in the Game, it was to trust his partner. He wasn't about to doubt that wisdom anytime soon.

Wufei scrutinized the people gathered at the scramble crossing with a critical, almost derisive eye. Neku recalled a time when he too had despised Shibuya for its chaos and clashing of ideals. But Wufei's scorn seemed to stem from something else other than a mere distaste for people …

"Oomph!" Neku had been so busy analyzing his partner's actions that he had not been watching the road ahead of him. Normally, it wouldn't have been a problem, for Neku knew the streets of Shibuya well enough to navigate them while half asleep, but in the UG that day there was an invisible wall blocking the way to 104. And he had just walked into it. "A wall. We can't get through."

"Then how are we supposed to complete the mission?" Wufei snapped, his temper starting to show. "I won't let a mere wall stand in my way. I'll tear it down myself!"

"We don't need to tear it down," Neku said, his eyes scanning the crowd for a certain figure. Where there was a wall, there was sure to be a red-clad Reaper close by. All they had to do was locate the Reaper and complete the task that the Reaper would assign to them before being granted passage.

"Pact confirmed. Wall clear!"

The voice was so faint it was almost inaudible. But Neku had just barely heard the words. He turned in the direction that he heard the voice come from, but there was nobody there – not that Neku had expected to see anyone. Reapers could make a very hasty exit when they wanted to.

"Hey." Neku crossed his arms, his expression hidden behind the oversized collar of his shirt. "The wall's down. We can go through."

The pilot of Altron turned to his partner with a suspicious look. "How do you know that the wall is down? Why should I believe that there was even a wall in the first place?"

"If you want to get through the Reapers' Game, you have to trust your partner," Neku replied, making sure to keep his anger and exasperation in check. "That's all you can do."

Scoffing and muttering about weakness – and some other stuff that Neku didn't catch – Wufei stormed away, heading towards 104 without waiting for Neku. The redheaded teen sighed and went after him, knowing that partnered Players had to stick together lest they attract stray Noise. He was starting to understand how Shiki must have felt when she had to put up with his antisocial behavior in the beginning of the first week.

Speaking of Shiki, Neku wondered how she was doing. He wondered if she had found a partner whom she could depend on.

~TWEWU~

"Go, Mr. Mew!" Shiki cried, throwing her stuffed cat plush at the Circle Pit Grizzly she was fighting. Mr. Mew delivered a flurry of swift punches that sent the Noise reeling back, then returned to Shiki's side to await further orders.

Letting out a furious roar, the creature drew its arm back and knocked Shiki to the ground with a powerful swipe. It then leaped into air, preparing to body slam its fallen opponent, but Shiki tossed Mr. Mew at its face, interrupting the attack and giving herself time to recover.

"Nngh …" Shiki winced. Her body ached and she could feel her strength draining. She turned her thoughts to her partner. _Are you holding up all right, Duo?_

_Heh. I've never been better!_ Duo, who was fighting the same Noise as Shiki from within his battle zone, slashed at the Circle Pit Grizzly with his scythe. It had originally been a thin metal pole about a foot in length; whenever he entered a battle, it would transform into a scythe about four feet long, with a blade made out of green energy.

The two had met up in the scramble crossing while fleeing from Noise and had quickly formed a pact shortly afterwards. Shiki had been planning to search for Neku or Beat, but Duo was the first Player whom she had come across. He also seemed completely unaware of what was going on. Figuring that his chances of survival in the Reapers' Game would be higher with a partner who knew the ins and outs of the Game, Shiki had joined forces with him. Neku and Beat were fellow veterans, and they would be able to manage without partnering with her.

Duo, for his part, had listened to Shiki's explanation of the situation with as little interruption as possible. As incredible as it may have seemed, what Shiki had told him made perfect sense. She was not the enemy, he could tell, and they both had a common goal in mind. He had no problems with being her partner for the Game.

Shiki and Duo had been giving the Circle Pit Grizzly everything they had to give, but the towering creature was one of the stronger Noise Shibuya had to offer. The two Players were also worn out from their earlier battle with a school of Jelly Madchester Noise, which had been followed by a round against an Ambiefox and two Jungle Boomers. A rogue Reaper had ambushed them on their way to 104, keeping the two from their mission by sending Noise to attack them.

_We can't keep this up for much longer,_ Shiki mentally communicated to Duo. _And we're running out of time. We have to reach Ten-Four to clear the mission!_

_Well, I don't know about you, but these guys aren't going to quit anytime soon!_ Duo replied. He nearly lost his grip on his scythe when the Circle Pit Grizzly slashed him across the chest and torso. "Why you –!" The pilot of Deathscythe retaliated by driving the blade of his scythe into the Noise's shoulder.

With a tired sigh, Shiki ordered Mr. Mew to attack the Noise once more. Even if she and her partner were unable to complete the mission, as long as _somebody_ did, they were all in the clear. She hoped that both Neku and Beat had found partners whom they could trust, and that at least one of them would be able to reach 104.

~TWEWU~

Trowa had expected nothing of the sort after his death – or was he dead to begin with? He had felt the blast of the OZ soldier's gun as it slammed into his cockpit at point blank range. There was no way he could have survived an impact as powerful as that. But then he had woken up in the middle of the street, in front of a department store; received a bizarrely worded text message; been chased by monsters that emerged from graffiti. His day could not have been any weirder.

He hissed when he felt a painful sting to his wrist. Sweeping his arm in a wide arc, he released a sharp blade of energy that cut through his enemies like a knife through butter. The purple bat creature that had bit him was cleaved in two.

_Are you all right, Trowa?_ Quatre's voice echoed through his mind.

Despite the severity of the circumstances, Trowa couldn't suppress the smile that made its way to his face. He had been lucky to encounter Quatre on the streets. Faced with a hostile and unfamiliar situation, the pilots of Heavyarms and Sandrock joined together to fight off the monsters that had been pursuing them. Interestingly enough though, once the two pilots had voiced their intent to team up, a blue flash of light had followed their declaration. Also, whereas neither Trowa nor Quatre had been able to even damage the creatures when fighting alone, they were able to vanquish the monsters as a team.

Shortly after their victory, a strange man dressed in a black sweater came and taunted them, and then he unleashed more of the graffiti monsters and sent them to attack the two pilots. Trowa and Quatre were too outnumbered to fight all of the creatures, and so they had fled. They had taken refuge inside a darkened theatre, only to be attacked by bats.

_We can't continue like this,_ Trowa thought, even as he dispatched of another two bats. _Neither of us know how to get around this place, and we can't fight forever._

_You're right._ Quatre channeled his strength into the pin in his hands, mentally picking up a nearby amplifier and flinging it at the bats. He had found a set of five pins in his pocket after he had woken up in the streets, each of which allowed him to use a different ability. He switched the pin in his hand to a blue one decorated with a lightning bolt. _We have to find the other pilots. They're here in this city. I can feel it._

~TWEWU~

"We made it, yo! Jus' in time!" a certain blond teen shouted as he grinned down at his palm. The timer was gone, and he and Heero had cleared their mission with time to spare.

"Hn. Mission complete," Heero said. Now that the urgency had passed, maybe he should try pressing his partner for more information.

"Aight! We supplied the first day, yo!" the boy cheered.

"That's 'survived,' Beat," came a new, unfamiliar voice. Both Heero and his partner turned to face the speaker, and saw two people walking towards them: a redheaded teen with a pair of oversized blue headphones around his neck, and the pilot of Altron.

"Bwaaah! Phones, don'cha sneak up a me like that, yo!" the teen – whose name was apparently Beat – yelled, an absurdly comical look on his face.

"Heero." Wufei acknowledged the other's presence with a slight nod of the head.

"Wufei. So you're here too," the pilot of Wing Gundam said, returning the gesture. "Has your … partner, explained anything to you?"

"It is nonsense," Wufei retorted, letting his anger and disbelief become evident. "I do not know how we came to this place. But these explanations make no sense!"

"Whatchu say?" Beat growled, his hands clenching into fists. "Phones ain't a liar, yo! So don'chu call 'im one!"

"It is an inconceivable concept!" Wufei shouted at Beat. "Do you expect me to believe that … that such a thing is truly possible? It is inane!"

"You're a Player, just like Beat and me," the redheaded teen – Phones, as Beat had called him – said. "The Noise were chasing you, and you could see me. And besides, if you're not a Player, then why would you have a Player pin?"

Still unaware of the situation that he and Wufei were in, Heero saw for the first time that the other three teens were all wearing a black pin that was decorated with a white skull design. His left hand drifted to his chest, and he felt his fingers brush against something that was pinned to his tank top. Like the others, he was also sporting a similar skull pin.

"Yo, Tanks, talk a bit a sense into yer friend Dragon Boy! He callin' Phones a liar!"

"My name is not Dragon Boy, it's Wufei!"

Phones let out an exasperated sigh as Beat and Wufei began to argue. "Same old Beat," he said, although his voice held a trace of amusement. "Where's Shiki? She had better be all right …" The amusement gave way to worry.

Heero, on the other hand, had no clearer understanding of anything that was going on. He was aware of a few basic facts: their mission to destroy the OZ base that morning had ended with the deaths of his fellow pilots and himself; he had found himself lying facedown in Shibuya's scramble crossing intersection; he had formed a pact – whatever a pact was – with a loudmouth blond teen who called himself Beat; Wufei was also present and he had some idea of what had happened after their mission.

Whatever the reasons behind the strange series of events that had transpired that day, he couldn't comprehend the possible explanation that could have unnerved Wufei so badly.

What on Earth and the colonies was going on?

~TWEWU~

A/N: Before anyone brings it up, I have to say this first. Don't complain to me about Beat's speech. That's how he talks in the game. Yes, it's a headache to read. It's more of a headache to write. But that's how he speaks in The World Ends With You. So I'm going to stay with it, as much as it pains me.

How many of you are lost by the end of this chapter? If you are, then good. If you're not, that's also good. TWEWY fans, if there are any, this won't follow the exact format of the Reapers' Game. Just stay with me until I get to the chapter that explains what's going on in the UG.


End file.
